Many who profited from Lance Armstrong's lies now pay the price

In this July 19, 2009, file photo, Lance Armstrong crosses the finish line during the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race in Verbier, Switzerland. Armstrong confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France during a taped interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday, Jan. 17, reversing more than a decade of denial. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours, File)

John Wilcockson has been to 44 consecutive Tours de France and wrote six books about Lance Armstrong's victories.

His work culminated in the 2010 best-seller, "Lance: The Making of the World's Greatest Champion." In it, Wilcockson recounted Armstrong's life story, juxtaposing a tale of grit and perseverance with the doping allegations that had been swirling around him for a decade. The conclusion: Armstrong's life was a triumph of training, strength and will.

Now Wilcockson, 69, and others in the far-flung world of Lance Inc. must re-brand while reassessing a confessed serial doping cheater who helped them make a lot of money. From Armstrong-linked sportswear by Nike to Armstrong-endorsed energy drinks and Armstrong-inspired private cycling trips to the Tour de France, purveyors of the shattered myth are facing a reckoning of their own.

"I've been pretty depressed, having written such positive things," said Wilcockson, who has known the 41-year-old Armstrong since the cyclist was 16. "Everyone accepted Lance was the champion. They didn't question him because they benefited from his success. That's how the big lie was perpetuated."

After the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued its damning 1,000-page report on Armstrong's cheating in October, sponsors including Nike, Luxottica's Oakley, Anheuser-Busch and Trek Bicycle dropped Armstrong. The cyclist told Oprah Winfrey that the lost sponsors cost him $75 million of income in one day.

Legal battles over Armstrong's doping continue. He faces civil suits in the United States and Britain, including a complaint filed last week over his autobiographies.

How deeply the truth will hurt the businesses and careers nurtured by Armstrong's fame is beginning to come into focus. While the cycling boom over the past decade is likely to continue, products directly tied to Armstrong are on closeout. Cycling tours of Europe are suffering, and prospects for ratings and advertising gains on televised cycling races look slim, buyers say.

"The sport continues to lose a significant portion of the limited credibility it has," said Greg Janetos, a former currency and carbon-credit trader in Mill Valley, Calif., who rides his $3,000 bike more than 100 miles a week. "You have to start from the assumption that the field is juicing."

The bicycle industry got a boost from Armstrong's victories in the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005, according to Tim Blumenthal, president of the Bikes Belong Foundation, a cycling advocacy nonprofit in Boulder, Colo. Armstrong's fame and commercial endorsements turned cycling into "a central theme or backdrop" in print and electronic advertising, making "bicycling more mainstream (and) less of a quirky, European subculture," Blumenthal said.

U.S. sales of road bikes, the type ridden in races such as the Tour de France, surpassed mountain bike sales in 2010 and accounted for almost a quarter of all bicycles sold in the U.S. in 2011, up from 16 percent in 2005, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association's website.

While unit purchases of bicycles in the U.S. fell 19 percent between 2002 and 2011 to 15.7 million, dollar sales rose 13 percent to $6 billion in 2011, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

U.S. bicycle racing also fed on Armstrong's popularity. Licensed membership in USA Cycling, the sport's governing body, grew 45 percent between 2004 and 2011, to almost 71,000. In those same years, sanctioned races expanded 42 percent to 3,026 and the number of racing clubs climbed 79 percent to 2,569, according to USA Cycling's 2011 annual report.

"Lance raised the waters for the entire bicycle industry," said Chris Kegel, owner of Wheel & Sprocket, a seven-location chain based in Hales Corners, Wisc., estimating that road bike sales "easily" went up 20 percent. "When Lance started winning, it reinvigorated the whole road bike market."

Closely held Trek's revenue has risen by a third since Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999, to $800 million to $900 million last year, says Paul Swinand, an equity analyst and former cyclist who covers athletic apparel companies for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. Armstrong's endorsement "definitely helped," he said. For Nike, the Livestrong brand — named for the anti-cancer foundation that Armstrong founded — was worth $200 million a year in revenue, Swinand estimates.

On eBay's Internet market, Nike sportswear associated with Armstrong is selling for about half what it fetched before the USADA report in October, according to Seth Cusick, owner of the eBay merchant Spicoli4ever Vintage T's, who says he used to sell lot of it. On eBay this week, other sellers were offering black "Livewrong" sweatshirt hoodies for $41.98 and wristbands for $4.52.

Wilcockson's 2010 book on Armstrong, originally priced at $26 for a hardback, was listed on Amazon.com's website this week at $10.40. The book sold 60,000 copies worldwide and reached 33rd on The New York Times best-seller list, according to Kate Burke of publisher Da Capo Press in Boston. The author said he doesn't know how much he made from it.

Wilcockson, who feels "much more confident" that the new generation of bicycle racers is clean, plans to attend his 45th consecutive Tour de France and write another book.

"I'm a trusting person," he said. "I trusted the people I spoke to. Right now, it feels pretty embarrassing."

With assistance from Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles and Dune Lawrence in New York.